Health Financing Specialist at The Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF)

Role Summary 

The Health Financing Specialist will be responsible for driving the DRF strengthening and optimization, and affordable access to MNH bundle commodities objectives of the project. The role will focus on ensuring full functionality of DRF governance and accountability structures, improving DRF commodity budgeting and financing and revenue tracking to ensure its availability for commodity replenishments. He/she will actively collaborate with state stakeholders (DRF Committees and DMAs) and HSDF state program staff to drive targeted improvements. The role will involve frequent travels to the 5 program states for meetings and workshops designed to achieve program targets. and other free MNCH programs is also a key deliverable. The key focus of the role is to: 

• Strengthen DRF programs across program states to ensure uninterrupted availability of MNH bundle commodities at supported health facilities 
• Reactivate and strengthen DRF governance and accountability structures to drive DRF program effectiveness and sustainability 
• Facilitate and track incremental performance improvements in states DRF MNH commodity financing, budgeting, and replenishment systems 
• Identify and leverage financing mechanisms (social health insurance) and other programs to facilitate affordable access to MNH bundle services for end beneficiaries across the project states 

About HSDF 

• The Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF) is a not-for-profit organization established in 2013 with a mission to improve the quality of decision-making and execution in the health sector through a focus on results at scale. HSDF provides analytical support, drives innovation, and engages substantively with governments, development partners, and other stakeholders to strengthen health systems and improve health outcomes. 
• Through evidence-based approaches and strategic partnerships, HSDF supports health systems strengthening initiatives across diverse work streams including primary health care, maternal and child health, health financing, public financial management, and institutional capacity development. 

About the MNH-ASSIST Project 

• The Maternal and Newborn Health Accelerated Scale-Up of Sustainable Supply Chain Interventions and Systems Transformation (MNH-ASSIST) project aims to improve the uninterrupted availability, beneficiary access, utilization, tracking, and reporting of MNH bundle commodities across supported health facilities. This will be achieved through multi-stakeholder collaborations that cut across various MDAs including the SMoH, SPHCDAs, DMA/CMS and health facilities, and partners like FIELD Intelligence, C4SD, ACEPHAP, TA Connect, SCIDaR, and CHAI among others. The project seeks to sustainably achieve the following: effective MNH commodities last-mile delivery (LMD) to facilities, improved states capacity to plan, finance, and execute LMD, digitalize states LMIS and enable real-time visibility for logistics data, consumption-driven MNH bundle commodities forecasting/quantification, and strengthened DRF programs to ensure continuous replenishment of MNH commodities.  
• Additionally, the project aims to facilitate affordable access to these bundled MNH services for beneficiaries by leveraging existing government and donor-driven financing mechanisms that protect women and their families from financial risks; these include national and states health insurance schemes, free/subsidized MNCH services integrated into BHCPF 2.0 and HOPE-PHC project, and states free MNCH programs where available. 

Key Responsibilities 

• The HFS will provide technical support to state DRF committees, DMAs, State health insurance agencies (SHIA) and other relevant stakeholders to deliver on project objectives through the following activities.  

Strengthen DRF Governance and Accountability Structures 

• Facilitate the training and reactivation of non-functional or weak DRF committees across the 5 states 
• Track reconstituted DRF committee meeting frequency, agendas, and outputs to ensure they are consistently decision-focused and not perfunctory 
• Facilitate the review and update (where required) of DRF policy manuals across the program states 
• Lead advocacy to DRF committees for early policy adoption for the following. 
• Operationalization of DRF revenue accounts for supported health facilities to hedge funds from diversion 
• Ring-fencing of funds for MNH tracer commodity in DRF budgets 
• Adoption of high cost-recovery models by DRF committees to guarantee replenishment stability for MNH commodities 
• Priority for high-demand MNH tracer commodities during reordering where funds are inadequate 

TA Support to Improve DRF MNH Commodity Financing 

• Facilitate the establishment and actively participate in states quarterly DRF commodity replenishment and performance review meetings to be guided by clear agendas and trackable outputs 
• Participate in states AOP development workshops to ensure integration of ring-fenced MNH bundle commodity budgets in states AOP document  
• Introduce and drive the adoption of consumption-based quarterly DRF budget cycles for MNH bundle commodities using data from states NHLMIS 
• Facilitate improvements in DRF revenue projection accuracy required for accurate budgeting by leveraging consumption data from NHLMIS 

Data and Performance Management 

• Co-develop state-level dashboards with SLDA and state stakeholders to routinely track DRF budgeting, allocation and replenishment performance targets  
• Actively track DRF budgets and replenishment targets with dashboards and use the insights to inform strategy redirections and intervention approaches 
• Use dashboards during quarterly replenishment and performance review meetings with stakeholders to drive evidence-based decision-making 

Health Insurance and DRF Integration 

• Facilitate the integration of MNH bundle services into state health insurance benefit package 
• Work with relevant state stakeholders to expand access to affordable MNH bundle services for women and newborns at supported facilities leveraging BHCPF, HOPE_PHC project and states free MNCH program (where applicable) 
• Facilitate the integration of DRF and state health insurance to improve access to affordable MNH bundle services  

Knowledge Management 

• Collate, curate and archive experience and learnings from field implementation 
• Contribute to the development of abstracts, technical briefs, blog posts, and other knowledge products 

Key Deliverables 

• Reactivate DRF committees and ensure they stay functional and decision-driven across the program states 
• Actively track and achieve DRF budget and allocation target in program states 
• Actively track and achieve DRF commodity replenishment targets in focus states 
• Integrate DRF with state health insurance to improve affordable access to MNH bundle services 

Must have skills

Excellent stakeholder management skills Good understanding of public health finance systems Data-driven decision-making skills Strong communication and coordination skills Problem-solving skills and adaptive thinking Ability to work in complex multi-stakeholder environments

Qualifications

Qualifications and Experience 

• A Bachelors degree in public health, health economics, health services, or a related field (Master’s degree will be an advantage) 
• 3–5 years’ experience implementing or supporting health financing or public finance management projects  
• Experience working with or implementing DRF programs in Nigeria or any a low-income country 
• Familiarity with the health insurance space or experience implementing donor-supported health insurance projects 

Competencies 

• Good understanding of public health finance systems  
• Excellent stakeholder management skills 
• Ability to create high-impact decks and other resources using MS power point, Word, Excel and Publisher 
• Data-driven decision-making skills 
• Strong communication and coordination skills 
• Problem-solving skills and adaptive thinking 
• Ability to work in complex multi-stakeholder environments